Advanced Business Communication

The work is a culminating assignment that allows you to showcase your growth as a student and professional in the realm of business communication. The work will include three parts: self-reflection, role-play as a manager, and justification for design of your formal business document for this work.

You are required to submit this as a formal business report. You will refer to the resources that you have worked with over the term as guidance for your document design (i.e. course readings, assignment guidelines, examples of student work posted in the class, examples of your own work). You must cite all research sources used with in-text citations properly and include a Works Cited or References page at the end, according to your choice of either MLA or APA style guidelines. There should be just one citation page at the end with all of the sources used throughout all three parts of this work. You might also use outside research to support points, but please use credible research to support your claims.

Start your formal work report with an introduction, followed by the three individual parts of the work, and then a conclusion/closing.

I. Self Reflection

During this term you have worked through designing and completing deliverables for a long-term group project under the direction of a manger. You have written numerous reflections to your manger about challenges and successes with your team and the communication between members. In this section of the work, you will submit an honest and detailed reflection on your learning and growth (skills developed and further refined). Please write a complete, formal business letter/report to me with your overall reflection, as well as responding to the following prompts:

A.) Please write about what you have learned about effective communication (written and oral, individual and collective) that you will take into your career.

B.) In detail, please write about strategies that you employed in your team during this group project and/or learned through this course and will employ in the future to overcome communication challenges, including effective collaboration to meet deadlines.

This reflection response should be a minimum of 5 fully developed paragraphs, refer to and cite sources (at least four) used in the course, and include a proper introduction and conclusion.

II. Manager Role-Play

In this part of the work, you will pretend to be a manager in a business and consider how you would handle and communicate in different business/management scenarios.

For the following scenarios, please respond as if you are a manager providing advice
sought from a staff member who reports the described problem to you. You must cite at least one reputable source (use the course resources and/or the library’s databases) to support your advice. Additionally, if you can refer to a previous experience to support your advice, especially relating to this class’s team project, please do so. Each response should be 250-400 words.

A.) “I know that Samantha is talented because I have seen her work on other projects and because she shares her ideas in team meetings, but she isn’t producing any work for this project. I have tried talking to her and asking her if she needs any help, though she always just responds by telling me that she will ‘get it done for next week’s meeting’. How can I effectively support Samantha and motivate her without coming across as negative and belittling of her talents?”

B.) “I really want to get this project to you by the deadline but think that is impossible. Jeremy almost never responds to my e-mails. When we do finally meet, he is constantly on his phone, sending text messages and e-mails. Why do you think that he acts this way? What do I do?”

C.) “Every time we have a team meeting, there is an issue with Scott. Any time he disagrees with the direction the team is going in or with something another team member contributes or says, he responds in ways that are sarcastic and disruptive. As team leader, I’ve asked him several times to be more respectful and contribute in helpful ways, but he refuses. How can I fix this?”

III. Justification for Design of Document

In this section please explain the choices that you have made to design the work and why (as a formal report). The main considerations discussed should include visual design/appeal and organization of information. You should discuss at least 3 design choices you made and use examples. In this section you are required to refer to learning sources from this term, which can include your course readings, examples, and outside sources as support for the explanation and justification of your document design. (This section must be at least 3-5 complete paragraphs.)

Conclusion:

After the three parts of your exam, don’t forget to provide a conclusion and wrap up your report in a manner that is appropriate for the report style and format you have chosen.

Grading Criteria
• Content: thorough response to the prompts, clear use of critical thinking/analysis, use of details, credible support/research for ideas (40)
• Sentence structure, word choice, grammar and spelling, proper citations (30)
• Report design/layout of information and professional presentation (20)
• Readability: ideas connect well, there is a natural flow to the writing (10)